99% of the dollar billions revolving around our planet have nothing to do with work, creation of value, goods or services. The glow of money is illuminating the world economy. But this glow is a fake, a will o' the wisp, a fata morgana.
Money, so it seems, transports nothingness into existence. If something has no monetary value, it is worth nothing. There is more money to be made from the buying and selling of factories than from actually producing something in these factories.
Entire countries (and its people and scenery and history and music and poetry) are reduced to a virtual share value. China's is high and Greece's is low, China is a dictatorship, Greece is a democracy, but if Greece sells the Acropolis, Delphi, Olympia and a couple of its scenic islands, it could become as valuable as China.
Stock exchange data are more important than the weather report.
Because the markets must be kept happy.
The markets. Those mysterious deities.
They are a sensitive lot and governments everywhere must always check first whether their decisions will find mercy with them. And the markets love offerings: reduction of wages, social security cuts, redundancies. The more offerings, the happier the markets become and then they will make the economy grow a bit. And we can stare in awe at the endless bands of the latest exchange rates tickering through our lives.
The markets' chosen people are those who seek advantages, the venture capitalists, the bargain hunters, big game bargain hunters. With safe deposit boxes where once was a heart.
I am merely doing God's work, said Lloyd Blanfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs.
And we are all millionaires, only some of us are experiencing a slightly embarrassing shortage of funds. But theoretically...
We are fools.
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